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• Scarcity of specialized Advanced Rider Assistant Systems (ARAS). • Two haptic-based ARAS are presented: Haptic GPS Glove and Warning Jacket. • Psychophysics experiment determined best haptic warning locations in the two ARAS. • Jacket excels in vibration perception; back of hand ideal for haptic glove warning. • Optimizing haptic locations enhances ARAS' usability, safety, and reduces accidents. The risk of being killed on the road is much higher for riders than for car drivers. Nevertheless, the number of devices or technologies available to assist riders in avoiding risks and road accidents—or the number of Advanced Rider Assistant Systems (ARAS)—is still scarce. In this article, we present and discuss the development and application of two ARAS technologies using haptic interaction to assist riders on the road and increase their safety: an Haptic GPS Glove and a Warning Jacket. To determine the best locations for conveying haptic warnings in these wearables, we conducted a psychophysics experiment in a motorcycle simulator. We employed an up/down staircase method and measured the absolute detection thresholds in six locations in the hand/gloves (right and left palm, back and wrist) and six locations in the jacket (right and left forearms front and back, and shoulder blades). This experiment was conducted on a motorcycle simulator that mimics the vibrations produced by a motorcyclewhile it is running at different levels of intensity. Tests on all locations were run over three conditions: (1) baseline condition, with participants seated at a table with no background vibration; and two conditions with participants seated at the simulator experiencing two levels of background vibration of (2) minimum vibration intensity, and (3) maximum vibration intensity. Overall, our results show that, in the simulator conditions, subjects were better at detecting vibrations applied to locations covered by the jacket as compared to the areas covered by hands/gloves. Specifically, the forearms and shoulder blades emerged as the most effective locations for transmitting haptic warnings to motorcyclists. For the motorcycle gloves, the back of the hand proved to be the optimal location for conveying tactile warnings. We conclude by discussing the applicability of our results in designing future ARAS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Affective touch has been associated with affiliative behavior during early stages of infant development; however, its underlying brain mechanisms are still poorly understood. This study used fNIRS (functional near-infrared spectroscopy) to examine both affective and discriminative touch in 7- month-old infants (n=35). Infants were provided affective stimuli on the forearm for 10 sec followed by a 20 sec rest period. The protocol was repeated for discriminative touch, and both affective and discriminative stimuli were given in a counterbalanced order. Brain activation (oxy-hemoglobin and deoxy-hemoglobin levels) in the somatosensory and temporal regions was registered during administration of the stimuli. There was an increase in oxy-hemoglobin and decrease in deoxy-hemoglobin only in the somatosensory region in response to both affective and discriminative touch. No other activations were found. Seven-month-old infants' brain activation in the somatosensory cortex was similar for both discriminative and affective touch, but the stimuli did not elicit any activation in the temporal region/ pSTS. Our study is the first to suggest that 7-month-old infants do not yet recruit socio-emotional brain areas in response to affective touch. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The caregiver's touch behavior during early infancy is linked to multiple developmental outcomes. However, social touch remains a challenging construct to operationalize, and although observational tools have been a gold standard for measuring touch in caregiver-infant interactions, no systematic review has been conducted before. We followed the PRISMA guidelines and reviewed the literature to describe and classify the main characteristics of the available observational instruments. Of the 3042 publications found, we selected 45 that included an observational measure, and from those we identified 12 instruments. Most of the studies were of infants younger than six months of age and assessed touch in two laboratory tasks: face-to-face interaction and still-face procedure. We identified three approaches for evaluating the caregiver's touch behavior: strictly behavioral (the observable touch behavior), functional (the functional role of the touch behavior), or mixed (a combination of the previous two). Half of the instruments were classified as functional, 25% as strictly observational, and 25% as mixed. The lack of conceptual and operational uniformity and consistency between instruments is discussed. • Touch, is essential in caregiver-infant interactions butchallenging to measure due to its multidimensional nature. • This systematic review summarizes the literature on observational instruments used to assess caregiver's touch. • Different approaches for assessing caregiver's touch behavior were identified: strictly behavioral, functional, or mixed. • Lack of conceptual, operational uniformity and consistency between instruments were identified and discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Biological motion perception—our capacity to perceive the intrinsic motion of humans and animals—has been implicated as a precursor of social development in infancy. In the adult brain, several biological motion neural correlates have been identified; of particular importance, the right posterior superior temporal sulcus (rpSTS). We present a study, conducted with fNIRS, which measured brain activations in infants' right posterior temporal region to point-light walkers, a standard stimulus category of biological motion perception studies. Seven-month-old infants (n = 23) participated in a within-subject blocked design with three experimental conditions and one baseline. Infants viewed: an intact upright point-light walker of a person approaching the observer; the same point-light walker stimulus but inverted; and a selected frame from the point-light walker stimulus, approaching the viewer at constant velocity with no articulated motion, close to object motion. We found activations for both the upright and the inverted point-light walkers. The rigid moving point-light walker frame did not elicit any response consistent with a functional activation in this region. Our results suggest that biological motion is processed differently in the right middle posterior temporal cortex in infancy, and that articulated motion is a critical feature in biological motion processing at this early age. • We measured infants' right temporal responses to biological motion using fNIRS. • Seven months old viewed a coherent point-light walker, an inverted point-light walker and a rigid moving point-light walker display. • The observation of both upright and inverted point-light walkers were associated to functional activations. • Infant's rSTS region responds to biological motion as early as 7-months. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Biological motion perception is a key component of action perception contributing to social cognition in crucial ways. Contemporary neuroimaging studies show that biological motion is processed differently in the human brain from other types of motion. In particular, the right posterior Superior Temporal Sulcus (rpSTS), an area known for its central role in social perception, has been consistently associated with the perception of biological motion in the mature brain. By contrast, most findings investigating the development of biological motion perception in infancy come from behavioral studies, and far less is known regarding the right STS' role in processing biological motion. The current study used fNIRS to measure brain activation to biological motion in the rSTS region of 7-8-month-old infants. Infants were presented with two conditions: an approaching coherent motion of a person walking (coherent point-light-walker, PLW); and a spatially scrambled version of this display, where the global configuration of a person walking was disrupted (scrambled PLW). We found a functional activation, i.e., a significant increase in HbO2 concentration in relation to baseline, in the right middle-posterior temporal cortex only when infants viewed the coherent point-light-walker. This activation statistically differed from the scrambled point-light-walker, and no significant activations were found for viewing the scrambled motion. Our study adds evidence pointing to rSTS' sensitivity to the global human configuration in biological motion processing during infancy. The rSTS seems thus to become functionally specialized in biological motion configuration as early as at 7-8 months of age. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]